Police in Naples have arrested one of the suspected killers of a 22-year-old woman who died in a weekend of Mafia violence, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports.

Gelsomina Verde, whose burnt body was found inside a car, is believed to have been killed because she was romantically involved with a leading member of the Camorra, the Neapolitan Mafia.

The man was arrested during the night in a house in Secondigliano, one of the two areas of Naples at the centre of a Mafia turf war.

Naples has been hit by violence between gangs linked to the Camorra, the local Mafia.

Mafia war

According to Italian Rai TV, the war was triggered by the creation of a splinter group from a once all-powerful clan, the Di Lauro family.

The splinter group, known as the "secessionists", has been trying to assert its control over drugs and prostitution rackets in the area.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu announced he was sending 325 extra police to the city after a particularly bloody weekend in which six people were killed in Mafia vendettas - the young Gelsomina Verde among them.

Last night's arrest is the second major police operation in 24 hours after the interior minister announced a crackdown on the escalating war for turf control.